NGD - Atkin Essential D

Cryptid · January 2023

I've been looking to reduce the number of acoustics I own with the questionable tactic of buying one more

The aim was to find a great all-rounder; an excellent big-sounding rhythm machine that also shines when flatpicked and plucked with the flesh. Something I'm happy to gig with and be my only guitar, if it ever came to that.

Having been through an expensive merry-go-round of acoustics the past four years, I know that what works best for me is a dread or small jumbo with a sitka top and mahogany or maple b/s.

It's rare to find a shop with a good stock of worthy candidates to play and compare, but Coda had at least 8 I wanted to try so I took the trip down yesterday:

2 Martin D18's - one natural, one burst. The natural wasn't great tone-wise and had a fair few blemishes and imperfections, high action and a short saddle. The burst was a great example of a D18, sounded stunning and £250 less than the natural too. It would have been a contender had it not been for the modified oval neck profile which I found too thin at the nut end.

Martin CS OM - split back with mahogany and maple. A very dry sounding Martin which was comfortable and enjoyable to play, but too small a box to give the big strumming sound I needed.

Gibson Elvis Dove - a Dove was pretty much top of my list and I kind of regret not buying the '94 Anni I played at GG last year. Never been much of a fan of the aesthetics tho. This was the most expensive guitar I tried and also the worst - a very bright and unflatteringly brash example.

Gibson J-185 - if I wanted a guitar just for rhythm, this would be the one. Lovely example and a lot more fun to play than my SJ-200, but not versatile enough to be the all-rounder I'm looking for.

Bourgeois Country Boy Slope D - a secondhand one within my budget. Really stunning guitar but unfortunately the slope shoulder body shape gives a sound that's a little too forward and focussed for my liking. It will make someone very happy. If it were a square-shouldered dread it'd probably have come home with me.

Epiphone Frontier USA - the main reason I went down to Coda, had to try one. I love its old Western looks and the thing sounds huge. Flawless craftsmanship. Responsive to all kinds of playing with a huge dynamic range and one of the warmest yet clearest maple guitars I've played, remarkably different from a Dove despite being very similar spec-wise. It'd make for the perfect recording instrument. Was pretty sure I'd take it home until I tried the Atkin.

Atkin Essential D - I've played three of these in different shops; wanted to love them but was always left underwhelmed. They've sounded a bit too bright and jangly but I've suspected that might be down to the Elixirs they ship with. Not this one! Even with Elixirs on it sounds fantastic. Perfect balance, warm and powerful but with excellent treble clarity. It's also the first one I've seen where the logo decal isn't bubbled and treatening to fall off.

The better of the two Martins honestly wasn't a patch on it. A darker stain to the back and neck suits the tone of this one, and the neck carve is perfection. It felt like being reunited with an old friend (I had a D37 which felt similar but not quite as nice).

I would've been happy with either the Frontier or the Essential D, it was an agonising choice but in the end I could imagine myself growing old with the Atkin. It's also nice to have another English-made guitar and of course the lifetime warranty is a huge bonus.

Setup is perfect, all that needs to be done is to fit a strap button and an Anthem SL which is my go-to pickup.

I'm honestly shocked how good it sounds with Elixirs and will leave them on for as long as I can resist the temptation of experimentation. I do want to hear how it sounds with EJ16's and MA540's at some point for reference. I've also got a set of Newtone Monels which I'll try - they last ages with my skin chemistry.

Someone needs to buy that Epiphone Frontier though before I get any naughty finance-related thoughts

thomasross20 · January 2023

Love your opening sentence lol.

Interesting re the Bourgeois as I think those Country Boys sound stunning on YouTube.

The guys at guitar village I spoke to were keen on the Atkins. I tried one once but thought "meh" similar to your previous experience so goes to show how every guitar is individual and you can really get some gems.

Looks great!!

roberty · January 2023

That looks stunning. Congrats sounds like you've picked a winner

Mellish · January 2023

@Cryptid ; always tickles me that people can be so different.

I tried an Essential D at GG Birmingham round about the time you tried that anniversary Dove there.

The Atkin just felt wrong in my hands, and I quickly put it back on its hanger.
I walked out with a red label Dove Original and to this day I've never regretted it.

But if the Atkin works for you, great.

CloudNine · January 2023

I love posts like this, great to hear your comparisons. Congrats on the new box, sounds like a winner!

Soupman · January 2023

Just goes to show, as is often repeated here - "try before you buy". Different guitars, individuals, and tastes!
Good that you found 'the one'!

Cryptid · January 2023

@thomasross20 Don't get me wrong, the Bourgeois was marvellous, it's just that the tonal characteristics of slope shouldered dreads aren't really for me.

@roberty Cheers

I do believe I've made the right decision here. For once!

@Mellish I tried that very Essential D at GG and it didn't stay in my hands longer than a minute either, I'd ruled them out. It was like a completely different guitar in terms of sound, looks and feel.

The Anni Dove was great but needed too much work for the asking price. The two I've tried since, including the Elvis, have been stinkers.

It really is all about finding a good example, regardless of manufacturer

I've come to expect it with Gibsons, but experiencing the difference between the two Martin D18's was an eye-opener and worth the trip alone.

joeW · January 2023

Congrats on your new Atkin - and thanks for the summary, it’s very helpful

thomasross20 · January 2023

I'd heard that about the Bourgeois. I heard their necks are slim which would suit me. Always wanted to get down to Peach, Code, GV etc - sounds like a great trip and I also like these write-ups, thanks.

ESBlonde · January 2023

I trod the same steps two years ago, went to Coda between Christmas and new year to spent a few hours playing everything upstairs in the acoustic room. For me it came down to a hummingbird anniversary or two essential D atkins. I ended up selecting one of the Ds and I continue to be well chuffed with my purchase two years on.

I liked the sound of the coated strings but they played havoc on the feel on my fingers. I re-cut the nut slots lower and use Martin 80/20 p.bronze in 10s. I know that might be sacrilege to some and I have lost a little volume but not tone. For the record I did re-try a set of coated strings but they had to come off a week later.
It has a tone many other musicians compliment all the time and I added a PU and a Mesa Rosetta DI pre amp. This thing sounds killer and we use three or four acoustic based songs to open our set now.
Enjoy your D, mines the keeper I always intend it to be, I’m not looking for anything to replace or supplement it.

Dave_Mc · January 2023

CloudNine said:

I love posts like this, great to hear your comparisons. Congrats on the new box, sounds like a winner!

Same here. Excellent score on the guitar

And that first sentence makes sense to me, at least.

stickyfiddle · January 2023

Lovely stuff. My favourite acoustics are a Bourgeois Mahogany D and Atkin 47, so this is a combination of the pair of them.

There's not much better than going to a shop and buying your favourite from a whole bunch of great instruments. It's a great way to get confidence that you really do have something special.

Interesting re the Gibson. I love a good Dove but they're hit & miss. Do the latest Elvis ones have ebony fretboards? I wonder if that might make them too "attacky"

Jimbro66 · January 2023

Excellent comparison @Cryptid. It underlines just how essential it is to try before buying. Congrats on your new Atkin.

In March it will be 10 years since I bought my OM Retrospective from Alister. Since then it's been used for very many gigs and almost daily at home. I'm still as happy with it now as when I first had it. I hope you get the same long term pleasure from yours.

thomasross20 · January 2023

I's great if you're actually able to go around a room and just play guitars. Not keen on places where you get handed one or two or the sales person is hanging over you like a bad smell. This seems especially true in acoustic stores. Best experiences I ever had was playing near every electric in one store many years ago, for HOURS... walking out with the very last one I tried which was way way way over budget. Almost didn't play it but glad I did - the PRS I've had since forever. You really do have to play the lot...!!

Smellyfingers · January 2023

I think the OP’s post underlined the importance of actually trying out acoustic guitars and the fact that the sound quality of the same model from the same maker can vary quite significantly between instruments.

I have never tried an Atkin but would assume they are likely to better value than American counterparts because of exchange rate differences etc

Dave_Mc · January 2023

thomasross20 said:

I's great if you're actually able to go around a room and just play guitars. Not keen on places where you get handed one or two or the sales person is hanging over you like a bad smell. This seems especially true in acoustic stores. Best experiences I ever had was playing near every electric in one store many years ago, for HOURS... walking out with the very last one I tried which was way way way over budget. Almost didn't play it but glad I did - the PRS I've had since forever. You really do have to play the lot...!!

Yeah definitely. I'm not sure if it's more true with acoustics- maybe I just haven't tried enough acoustics! But I've definitely noticed it in both electric and acoustic shops... it's very annoying. Don't get me wrong- I know why they do it and I sympathise, but having to go back to the sales person to ask to try another guitar just takes too long (you forget how they sound and feel), and means you can't go back and forth between your favourites, which you really eventually want to be doing. In fact in one shop I remember the acoustic room was upstairs and you had to go downstairs to fetch the salesperson... or one other shop the guitars I wanted to try were helpfully way up on the wall where a ladder was required. I swear it was maybe 5 minutes from putting the previous guitar down to getting the next one in your hand.

I also usually feel that I should be asking to try similar stuff, rather than random stuff. And as you said, sometimes the random one is the one you actually end up buying!

Also if you're self-conscious like me by the time you've hit about the third guitar you're thinking you've outstayed your welcome and probably call it quits. So far from even getting close to trying everything in the store, you usually end up leaving before you've even tried everything which was a genuine contender...

And then they wonder why some people just go to the internet...

Cryptid · January 2023

I'm glad you all appreciate the write-up and comparisons, but I do have quite specific tastes in guitars

The experience has hammered home the importance of playing a guitar before buying as there's so much variation, and specs can only give a rough idea of what to expect.

@stickyfiddle The Elvis Dove has a rosewood board. I actually prefer the attack characteristics of rosewood, but maybe it's just that most of the acoustics I've had with a rosewood board have been Gibsons of some sort. I don't mean to trash Doves; a good one is marvellous, but the last two I've played haven't been great.

@Davemc I think we've spoke before about being self-conscious in guitar shops. I normally clam up and get really anxious, forgetting how to play anything at all. I just get this sense of not being worthy of taking up their time despite being ready to spend a wad of cash on the right instrument. It's more a reflection on me than any sales staff to be honest.

Ideally I'd like a private booth with a clutch of guitars and be left to it, but with many shops downsizing the private booths have gone. I've always been treated well at GuitarGuitar in Birmingham but you can't help yourself to guitars off the shelf even when you're well known. As you say, it makes it impossible to go back and forth to make a good comparison.

It's still a lot better than ordering a guitar online unseen and unplayed, in the hope it will be a good example but with nothing to compare it to. With the hassle and cost of organising a return, I think some people would more likely to keep a guitar that's not exactly what they wanted.

My experience at Coda was refreshing. I gave them a list of the guitars I wanted to try and the chap explained that due to lack of floor space and spare stands, I could only get two down at a time. He fetched the first two for me and once he was comfortable that I was careful he let me pick down whatever I wanted and disappeared downstairs. Came up occasionally to check I was OK and what I thought of this and that. I was there for about three hours, went out for lunch then came back for another hour of testing. I'd recommend a visit if you're in the market for a nice acoustic.

Cryptid · January 2023

I'm sad to say that the Atkin will be going back...

Remember I said it has the perfect neck profile? Well, after a three hour jam the other night my left hand was killing me. It's a spooky pain I've had before at the base of the index finger down through the knuckle and the reason I had to sell my AV52 Tele.

The profile of neck down at the nut is almost a U shape but the depth itself isn't the issue, more the heft of the shoulders. Like my Tele, it felt perfect at first but caused problems with prolonged playing. I really should've remembered! It's just not going to work for me as my main gigging guitar doing two hour sets of non-stop rhythm.

I'm a bit gutted and embarrassed. Coda are understanding about it though and are happy for me to exchange it for the Epiphone Frontier next week. I found it very hard to decide between the two anyway and haven't been able to stop thinking about that Epi since playing it. I remember the neck being an unobtrusive medium C with more room at the nut so there'll be no issues there.

A real shame but at the same time that Frontier has been haunting me and I'm rather excited to get it in my hands.

Another NGD post next week then

Mellish · January 2023

@Cryptid ; don't worry about it.

There's no-one here who gets it right every time. I've been playing guitar since 1960 (banjo since early1970s) but I can - and do - still leave stores with instruments I have to return.

stickyfiddle · January 2023

That's a real shame, but as @mellish says you can't get it right every single time. I had a Les Paul that sounded & looked amazing but the baseball bat of a neck meant I just couldn't love it.

At least you have a great plan B

Cryptid · January 2023

Thanks chaps. It's just a bit annoying as I love everything else about the guitar. The plan B is a corker though

thomasross20 · January 2023

It happens.
Re the shape, do you mean it's like a shallow U shape but the edges are too square and cause you pain?

Cryptid · January 2023

@thomasross20 ;
It's exactly not what I'd call shallow. Haven't got the callipers on it but down at the nut it feels like my old Tele.
The 'square' edges / hefty shoulders are the issue, made worse by the fact it's slightly asymmetrical - there's more squareness on the treble side so it's putting a lot of concentrated pressure on the base of my finger when chording down by the nut.

thomasross20 · January 2023

Bummer and just one of those things you don't find until have had extended play time, like you say.

Dave_Mc · January 2023

Cryptid said:
@Davemc I think we've spoke before about being self-conscious in guitar shops. I normally clam up and get really anxious, forgetting how to play anything at all. I just get this sense of not being worthy of taking up their time despite being ready to spend a wad of cash on the right instrument. It's more a reflection on me than any sales staff to be honest.

Ideally I'd like a private booth with a clutch of guitars and be left to it, but with many shops downsizing the private booths have gone. I've always been treated well at GuitarGuitar in Birmingham but you can't help yourself to guitars off the shelf even when you're well known. As you say, it makes it impossible to go back and forth to make a good comparison.

It's still a lot better than ordering a guitar online unseen and unplayed, in the hope it will be a good example but with nothing to compare it to. With the hassle and cost of organising a return, I think some people would more likely to keep a guitar that's not exactly what they wanted.

My experience at Coda was refreshing. I gave them a list of the guitars I wanted to try and the chap explained that due to lack of floor space and spare stands, I could only get two down at a time. He fetched the first two for me and once he was comfortable that I was careful he let me pick down whatever I wanted and disappeared downstairs. Came up occasionally to check I was OK and what I thought of this and that. I was there for about three hours, went out for lunch then came back for another hour of testing. I'd recommend a visit if you're in the market for a nice acoustic.

Yeah same here (I think you're right, we probably have talked about this before!). I also start worrying that what I'm playing is uncool or whatever, and then just start randomly noodling, which probably sounds even worse than the actual songs I was going to play! (Even worse on acoustic, because as a more electric-style player the only songs I can think of playing are usually electric ones!)

Booths are the best, definitely.

You're right about the online buying- I buy most things online and there definitely does feel (at least to me) that unless there's something actually wrong with it, I'll probably just keep the thing. Then again I also get the feeling that there were things I was too hard on in shops that I probably should have just bought!

I know Coda is usually considered one of the good ones- I've bought a few things off them online and they've been great. I'm in Northern Ireland unfortunately, if I were a bit closer I'd definitely have been to them long before now!

(That's interesting about the Doves- I've never tried any, but I'd like to. I really seem to like Gibson acoustics, but I agree with you that they're super-variable- the best ones are brilliant, but (as I've said before) the worst ones feel like you'd be much better off with a £400 Faith!)

That sucks about the neck profile on the Atkin- but I suppose (trying to make the best of it!) at least when something actually hurts it makes your decision for you and you won't have to second-guess it. And having the Epiphone as the one you almost bought and wondered about should hopefully make it a bit easier...

Looking forward to that NGD post too

EDIT: Don't worry for a second about "getting it wrong"- at least you know and will hopefully end up with something that suits you. We all (well, I do anyway!) get it wrong, I'm so indecisive that I never know if I've got it wrong or not! That's even worse...

Th4fonz · January 2023

I was just about to right a congratulations on a beautiful guitar then read ure returning it due to the neck. I’ve been here a few times and one in my collection also has to go as amazing as it is. Theres no point opening the case and playing for 30 min because the neck doesn’t work and causes hand issues.

DavidR · January 2023

Hope Epi works out for you @Cryptid . Informative thread. Overall, highlights what great guitars, choice and stores we have in UK in 2023. Great that Coda gave such good service and swapped. Try doing that in the 1970's! Don't think I would have dared. Bought an absolutely awful Gibson Mark in 1979. Never even thought of taking it back. fwiw, had an Epiphone back then too. I think it was what I bought after the Gibson. It was bad pretty bad as well! :-)

idiotwindow · January 2023

DavidR said:

highlights what great guitars, choice and stores we have in UK in 2023. Great that Coda gave such good service and swapped. Try doing that in the 1970's!

Coda are excellent and this kind of service is where they shine. I don't think you should assume that other popular UK dealers would be so accommodating.

Dave_Mc · January 2023

idiotwindow said:

DavidR said:

highlights what great guitars, choice and stores we have in UK in 2023. Great that Coda gave such good service and swapped. Try doing that in the 1970's!

Coda are excellent and this kind of service is where they shine. I don't think you should assume that other popular UK dealers would be so accommodating.

Yeah, to be fair they don't have to if you've tried it in store. I guess it helped that he's willing to take another guitar they have, but they still don't have to and still I would guess that most stores wouldn't entertain that. That's exceptional service, basically.

Cryptid · January 2023

Just got home with the Epi Frontier

I really can't rate Coda highly enough, they didn't hesitate about the exchange and actually cared that I had the right guitar in the end. They'd even put a fresh set of strings on it for me, the gents.

I'm spoiled in Birmingham between GuitarGuitar, Fairdeal, PMT and The Little Guitar Shop and had excellent service from each over the years to be fair. For example, Grant at PMT had no qualms about giving me a refund for an amp I bought two days previous which wasn't quite doing it for me (but I have known him since the Musical Exchanges days so I don't know whether that's a factor).

That said, Coda's range of desirable acoustics is hard to beat and I was made to feel really welcome there. I didn't dare step in the electric shop - acoustic blinkers on!

I think it's serendipity that the Atkin wasn't working out for me; the Epiphone is absolutely stunning and a much better fit.
Got a rehearsal soon so NGD post will have to wait until tomorrow

Mellish · January 2023

@Cryptid ; put on new strings eh? Makes Coda a good store in my book.

It's a bit too much mileage for me, though, furthest I get from Lincolnshire is GuitarGuitar, Birmingham. Nearly every acoustic I've bought has come from there. Glen (the manager) is a very fair guy.

I may be off there in the next few days.

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NGD - Atkin Essential D

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